Downing of flight MH17: Dutch court convicts three suspects of murder and acquits one

A Dutch court on Thursday convicted three suspects of murder for their role in shooting down Malaysia Airlines passenger flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014. A fourth suspect was acquitted.

The convicted men, two Russian former intelligence officers and a Ukrainian separatist leader, were found guilty of downing the plane and killing all 298 people on board.

The fourth suspect on trial was acquitted.

Former Russian intelligence officers Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Ukrainian separatist leader Leonid Kharchenko were found “guilty of murder”. Oleg Pulatov, another former Russian intelligence officer, was found not guilty.

The MH17 passenger flight was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

At the time, the area was the scene of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this year's conflict. Russia invaded Ukraine in February and claims to have annexed the Donetsk province where the plane's wreckage and victims' remains were once scattered across cornfields.

Reading a summary of the ruling, Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis said the men did not enjoy any immunity from prosecution as they were not members of the Russian armed services.

"There is no reasonable doubt" that MH17 was shot down by a BUK missile system, Steenhuis said.

The ruling is an important milestone, though the suspects remain fugitives. They are all believed to be in Russia, which will not extradite them.

Moscow denies any involvement or responsibility for MH17's downing and in 2014 it also denied any presence in Ukraine.

In a briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ivan Nechaev told reporters the government would examine the court's findings.

"We will study this decision because in all these issues, every nuance matters," he said.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)